Hacking in Three Acts
by Cowardice
Summary: Donatello meets a hacker. Quick one-shot, bit of a PWP. M for language and adult situations. Act 2 uploaded.
1. Act I

Act 1

* * *

Donatello scrubbed at his face tiredly. It was a long shift.

He was in his lab, illuminated by the many screens in front of him that showed various security check points that he had set up. But right now, he was more focused on the ringing that sounded through the headphones he had on. He tapped a button to answer the call. The pit of dread already growing at the bottom of his stomach.

"Hello, you've reached Don, your friendly neighbourhood IT guy. How may I help you?"

The line came rehearsed…and he was utterly and completely bored.

"Have you tried turning it off and on again?" he offered monotonously as he spoke to the person on the line. With his right hand, he massaged his temples. He could feel a migraine coming on.

"Calm down ma'am, I am only trying to help you…. Uh huh… okay… is it plugged in?"

There was a pause.

"No problem. Thank you for calling IT Helpline, your call is important to us."

_Click_.

Donatello repeatedly thudded his head against his desk. He was going insane. Ninjutsu training did not prepare him well enough to deal with _this._

When April had suggested this position to him, it sounded like a great idea. He worked remotely, the head office only ever contacted him via email or the phone, he did not have to have face to face contact with humans, and their enemies were none the wiser. The additional income helped the family as well and they did not have to scrounge as much as they did before.

Donatello just did not expect it to be so soul-crushing tedious. He now understood the idiom, 'bored to death' intimately. He didn't know that they were so many technological inept people out there. Raphael was one but Raphael didn't bother with a computer. He was happy enough with the printed dirty magazines that everybody knew were stashed under his bed.

Why would anybody get a computer without learning how to use it first?

It was a question that he asked himself many times. It was also a question that he refrained from screaming at the callers, among other very creative things that Raph would've been proud of. But… Donatello was a patient turtle. His ninjutsu training had seen to that. That and every single call was recorded for "training purposes".

Though right now, he hoped feverishly that that was the last call he had to answer before he clocked out on the online system.

_Ring ring ring_…

No such luck.

Donatello sighed again, slumped over on the desk in soul crushing defeat as he pushed a button. He wished he was anywhere but here. He wished he was being sliced and diced by the Shredder, or being crushed by Hun, or even taken apart piece by piece by Bishop if it meant getting away from _here._

"Hello, you've reached Don, your friendly neighbourhood IT guy. How may I help you?"

There was giggling on the other line.

Donatello's eye ridges raised. This was new. He never had a caller call to giggle at him before.

"Er... Hello? Did you get the wrong number?" he tried again.

"You sound cute," came the reply. Donatello blinked blankly at the response. It was a female voice, a low lazy alto.

"Thanks?" he offered, confused as to where this was going, "So is there anything I can help you with?"

"Say something for me."

"Er… ma'am, I don't think this is appropriate."

Another giggle.

"Yup. Definitely cute. In fact, I almost feel guilty for doing this to you," came the response and he could almost hear the grin in her voice, "…Almost."

There was some clicking over the phone. Then, Donatello stared in shock as his monitors started to flicker. The screen at the top left flicked off before a large winking smiley face animation appeared.

And much to his horror, so did another screen… and another… and another…

Headphones still on, he heard the girl on the other line let out a low whistle.

"Damn, what are you? Interpol or somethin'? Your system's insane! What'cha got in there? You part of the Pentagon or something?" He could almost hear her rub her hands together in glee.

He immediately snapped out of his shock. He was being hacked! Hands on the keyboard, he immediately started typing furiously as he tried to outhack the hacker in his system. Fear and dread raced through him. Who was this girl? Who did she work for? Was she hired to sniff them out? They can't afford to have a breach in the lair.

There was an amused chuckle over the line as his fingers raced across the custom keyboard he had created for his hands. He had managed to slam down the security to his database, isolating and protecting the information that could be traced back to their location. He proceeded to try and isolate the source of the hacker in order to completely block off her access by setting up a trace on the invading system before he worked hurriedly on wresting back control.

"Well well well… I gotta say, I'm impressed. Not many of you IT call guys actually know their way around. You must be something special," came the surprised quip.

"Lady, you have no idea," Donatello muttered darkly, more to himself than to her as his fingers flew over the keyboard.

There was another amused chuckle, "And now you're trying to get back at me eh? I applaud you for the effort."

Donatello scowled at the screen, "Who are you? What do you want? Why are you doing this?" He was having a hard time pinpointing her location. It looked like she was covering up her tracks through various proxy servers across the globe. It would take a lot of time to trace the signal and cut off access. The only thing now is that he had to stall for time and distract her to the best of his abilities. He might not be able to completely block her off but he would at least have a location.

"Who am I? Nobody. Why am I doing this? Cause I'm bored," came the easy reply. Then, she hummed thoughtfully, "TCRI? What's your deal with that company? You've got loads of their stuff."

Sharp stinging fear raced down his spine. Had she managed to break into his database already? Was that before or after he had shut off all access to it and boosted security? But he was slowly wresting control back over his own system as one by one, the winking animation disappeared from his screens. He glanced impatiently at the trace he had placed on her. It was nearing completion and had managed to narrow it down New York… a few more minutes and he would know the exactly location.

"'Ey Donnie! I know yer busy wid that high techie stuff, but can you take a look at my –" Raph just walked in.

"NOT RIGHT NOW!" he practically screamed back.

"Whoa! Chill man, a'ight, I'll come back later. Sheesh."

"Donnie huh? Who's that in the background? He sounds cute too. Perhaps I should stop by for a visit. But I see I'm running out of time," she murmured, amusement still quite clear on her voice, "I gotta say though, I haven't had this much fun in a while. Guess you know how to show a girl a good time. Let's do coffee some time. Whadaya say?"

He need to stall… just a few more minutes…almost… there…

"I don't think that's a good idea. Why don't you tell me why it's a good idea to have coffee with someone who has deliberately hacked into my system?"

She laughed, "I know you're stalling so your trace can find me. I'm surprised you made it this far. Double edged sword though. I can trace your trace. I'll see ya around in New York, cutie pie."

_Click_.

Donatello slumped into his chair and sagged. That… that was almost too close. He scowled at the screen that marked the trace. The blinking light disappeared but it had managed to narrow the signal down to a small area in the city though it was still too big to completely narrow it down to one apartment building. He immediately checked his IT call records. He was not surprised to see that she had erased all records of the phone call. He immediately clocked out and signed out of the program as he went back and checked all his security measures. Everything seemed untouched and he wouldn't have believed what had happened if it wasn't for that annoying flashing animation of a winking face that she left on his top left monitor.

That stupid graphic was untraceable as well and it looked like it was coded to override all functions to remove it when she left. Donatello scowled at the screen. Stupid hacker calling card.

Then paused.

What did she mean she could trace his trace…?

Did that mean she had found the lair?

Dread in pit of stomach was back.

Just. Fucking. Great.

Donatelloe let out a loud grown as he threw himself back against the swivel chair, the heels of his hands grounding into his eyes in frustration.

His system was compromised.

Leo.

Leo was going to _kill him_.

* * *

A/N: Been on a TMNT kick recently and this was stuck in my head for the longest of time. Tell me what you think. :)


	2. Act II

Act 2

* * *

"Hey Donnie, any luck yet?"

Donatello sighed as he swivelled around on the chair to face his fearless leader, "No, not yet Leo. I haven't discovered anything yet. But if she tries to make contact again, I should be able to track down her location."

The blue-masked turtle nodded gravely, "Alright, let me know if you find anything new."

"I will, don't worry."

When his brother left, Donatello slumped back against the seat. He was exhausted. After he had reported what had happened to Leonardo, his brother had made the locating of this hacker a top priority. This was, of course, after he yelled at him for a good half an hour about how careless he was for not taking precautions with the IT software but Donnie forgave his brother for that. After all, he knew that Leo was really just looking out for the family. As for Raph and Mikey… Well Raph responded with an eagerness to kick some shell and Mikey, being Mikey, did not seem to grasp the gravity of the predicament that he had found himself in.

"It was a good thing she didn't hear me on the phone," Mikey had commented with a large grin, "Otherwise she would've known that I was the cute one."

But his brothers left him to it.

It had been three days since the attack on his system and he had worked tirelessly to make sure that he had done everything he could to prevent another breach. He had also tried to track down the source of the animation she had left imprinted on the screen but no luck so far. He had managed to decode it and remove it from his system. His own search had brought about information from others about a hacker who had done the same thing to a series of communications companies across the states. They nicknamed her the Smiling Ghost. He had already found and heard enough frantic recordings of IT guys who had reported the incident and she had always left her calling card, the same annoying winking animation on the screens. And in all, she was virtually untraceable. It seemed as if he was the only one who had managed to trace her back to New York. It didn't seem like it was a malicious act either as all the companies had no reports of major losses or attacks on their client base. There was also no second contact after the initial break in.

This made the email he received on the fourth day all the more surprising.

It was just an email but the fact that it had arrived in his inbox on his private network that was only accessible by April made it all the more suspicious. He had checked it first before opening it in case there were any viruses that _she_ had preprogrammed into it… but it was a simple email. On it was the same annoying animated winking face with a simple message at the bottom, _"I'll be really disappointed if you don't show up for our date. xoxoxoxo._"

Donatello sat back and stared at the email in disbelief. Had she manage to hack back into his boosted system? No, he reasoned, she had probably secured this line of contact when she hacked in the first time. However… the email she sent was something that he could trace back. A few strokes of the keyboard and some creative coding narrowed down the possibilities of where his hacker resided, the fourth floor of an apartment building not very far from where they were. Clicking furiously, he printed out the map and stared at it.

It smelt like a trap.

From what he knew, she seemed like a very accomplished hackers… why would she leave such a huge and obvious trail back to herself? It was a rookie mistake.

Donatello frowned at the circled location on the printed map before he stood up and grabbed his Bo staff. He'd need to speak to his brothers about this.

Though he had a feeling that he already knew what his brothers would say.

"You are absolutely not allowed to go in there by yourself!" Leonardo exclaimed, slamming both hands against the table.

"'Ey! Who are ya ta' tell Donnie wha' he can or can't do?" Raph spat back. Leo glared at his brother, "That's not the point here. The point is that this could be a trap and he shouldn't be running in to it by himself!"

"I dunno, she sounds cuuuuute," teased Michaelangelo as he waved the printed email in the air. Donatello massaged his temples in frustration.

"Look, I mean, it makes sense if I go in by myself because that's what she's expecting. Plus I will only go and do surveillance. I still don't know which apartment it is that she is in," he reasoned. Leonardo crossed his arms and looked at him, brows furrowed in thought before he nodded reluctantly in agreement. Encouraged, Donatello continued, "So if I go in there and if she really is as harmless as she seems, there's no harm done and she'll only know about me. But if it's a trap, I'll send you guys a signal on the shell-cell and you bust me out."

"I don't like it Donnie," sighed Leo as he rubbed his face tiredly.

"Ah give it a rest Leo, if Donnie 'dinks it's a good idea, then it's a good idea," Raph replied with a jerk of his thumb in his direction, "After all, 'e's supposed ta' be the smart one."

Donatello didn't know if he should take that as a compliment or… something else but he supposed he was glad that Raph was on his side.

Mikey rocked on the chair that he was sitting on with a grin, "So are you gonna bring her flowers?"

"No, Mikey," Don sighed, "it's not a date."

"Are you sure about that? You should let her know!" he laughed before he was silenced by a hard slap up the back of his head courtesy of Raph.

"Are ya' gonna head out ta'night?"

Donatello nodded as he stood up, "it'll be a quick look around. I'll bring the shell-cell with me. If I don't reach you guys in two hours, you know where the coordinates are."

This time, all three of his brothers nodded solemnly in agreement as he reached for his staff.

Leo clapped him on the shoulder as he headed towards the exit, "Be safe, Donnie."

Don smiled and nodded, patting his brother's hand sympathetically, "I always am."

And in fifteen minutes, he was on the rooftop of the opposite apartment building, trying to spy into the windows on the fourth floor to see if he could spot his hacker.

The apartment building itself was unassuming. Though it was a squat, five-storeyed building and shorter than most of its surrounding apartments, it was painted in the similar drab neutral colours of its neighbours. There was main front entry with thick glass doors and required a key fob to gain entrance. It was perched at the corner of a small intersection with one side facing the back of another building where they shared a common dumping ground and the other side facing out onto an alleyway. Assuming that the ground floor didn't count, the fourth floor would be the top floor.

Donatello pulled out his shell-cell and flicked it open. He had uploaded the floor plans of the building onto to reassure himself of his position. The floor plan allowed for four apartments on each floor. Two were larger with two bedrooms while other two consisted of a one bedroom apartment and a studio flat. Donatello had a gut feeling that his hacker was probably not located in either of the two bedroom apartments and so decided to look into the one bedroom and the studio first.

Reaching into his bag, he pulled out his infrared goggles and strapped them on. First thing first, he needed to figure out the heat signatures in order to determine if there was anybody home in either of the apartments. The only problem was that he wouldn't be able to detect them through brick walls. He eyed the different fire escapes as he calculated how to peek in through each window without being discovered.

_This._ This was what his ninjutsu training was for. Not dealing with some crazed inept computer illiterate asshole who wasn't able to read a manual properly.

With a smug grin, he strapped on his bag and backed up on the roof he was to take a running jump onto the closest fire escape balcony. This. This made him feel alive again.

He landed on the first one balcony lightly, barely making a sound as he padded forward and pressed himself against the wall in the shadows. The large window was slightly open to allow some airflow into the small apartment. According to the floor plans, this balcony belonged to the studio. The curtains were slightly pulled apart and the sound of a TV playing commercials can be heard through the small crack in the window. Donatello leaned forward to peer in. The goggles revealed two heat signatures, one was obviously a cat and another, a person. He flicked it off and watched from the darkness as the person turned to the cat, bending down to pet it.

Male, no luck. He was looking for a woman.

Donatello inched back before he jumped lightly up to the roof to head to the other side of the building where the one-bedroom was. He slid down to the fire escape and pressed himself against the wall. This time, the window was completely pulled open and the curtains drawn apart. From what he could see from his vantage point, the only light on was in the small kitchenette. From the other side of the dark room was the unmistakable glow of screens. The pit of excitement grew in his stomach as his hunch seemed to be correct.

Silently, he flicked on the goggles and was almost blown back by the heat signatures of the place. Little boxes of heat placed in the corner overwhelmed his senses and he had to quickly turn the goggles off before he went blind. The crazed person who lived here had hard drives upon hard drives and a myriad of different screens set up in the corner.

Yup.

This was definitely the place.

And as if to reiterate his point, suddenly a hand shot out and…

…handed him a mug of coffee?

Donatello gave a yelp of surprise as he stumbled back. A hand reached out to steady him and pull him back towards the window. He stared at the hands that was both offering a mug of coffee and holding onto him at the same time with a strange sense of awe. The hands themselves were small, petite, and very human when contrasted with his thick olive green skin. His eyes travelled up the small wrist of the right hand where a myriad of woven cord and leather bracelets were tied on and up to an exposed arm that ended at a shoulder. All very human, all very normal.

Then, he looked up at the person to come face to face with his hacker.

"Hello, Donnie I presume?" the familiar low and lazy alto came through her lips, one corner quirked up in a lazy smile.

Donnie stared.

She wasn't exactly breathtaking or beautiful, nor was she striking in any other way. Messy brown hair that was short and looked like she had taken a pair of scissors and shorn it off herself but long enough to be tied into a tiny ponytail in the back. A pair of thick plastic framed glasses sat on the bridge of her nose and framed a pair of brown eyes, slightly almond-shaped that looked down at him with a hint of cat-like bored amusement. She was in fact, quite plain and normal. If she were walking down the streets, she would be mere a statistic, no one noticeable.

Physically anyways.

"Cat got your tongue?" she asked teasingly then she smirked, "Or should I say, turtle?"

Alarm bells went off in his head but he was still a bit too much in shock as his motor functions did not seem to be responding very well…

"C'mon in Donnie," she told him with a jerk of her head as she retreated back into the window, letting go of him. "Do you still want this coffee?"

He stared at the proffered mug a bit dumbly before he took it in his hand, more in a daze than in actual response. He gave his head a shake, looked around suspiciously before he gingerly stepped into the small one-bedroom apartment. She herself had padded over to the entrance to flick on the lights so that the place was flooded in soft lighting. Out of habit, Donatello turned and drew the curtains close lest he was spotted from outside. Then, he turned and stood awkwardly by the window he had entered, unsure of what to do exactly. He was still high on alert mode since he still wasn't sure if this was a trap…

"So… do you not drink coffee?" she asked, arms crossed, the same bored amused smile on her face, "This was supposed to be a coffee date after all."

"I… er…" he paused before he cleared his throat, "I don't really drink coffee."

She laughed. It was a low throaty type of chuckle. Then, she stepped forward to take the mug off his three fingered hand before dumping the contents down the sink.

"Ah well, it was getting cold anyways. Tea?"

"Urm… yes please."

As she busied with putting the kettle on, he took a quick look around now that the room was bathed in light. A small dining table was shoved to the side in front of the kitchenette where there were two chairs. The table itself was stacked up with random books. A small couch and coffee table stood where he was standing now, facing the window. All in all, quite plain, quite normal. What caught his interest however was on the other side of the room.

The amount of tech on the other side of the room made his heart skip a beat. Perhaps a dozen screens were set up, each seemed to be operating and running different programs while the monitors on the desk were linked up to create a giant desktop that stretched across four screens. The miscellaneous hardware was pushed to either side of the screens and cooled down with two large fan units. On the other corner of the room looked like a small worktable where miscellaneous parts were laid out while a wall of shelving were nailed up above it, each shelf holding a myriad of tiny, neatly labelled drawers of different types of parts, screws, nails, and other things.

It was, for all intents and purposes, a small lab.

"Sweet huh?" she asked from the kitchenette, obviously having registered his reaction as she pulled out two new mugs from the cupboard, "what kind of tea do you want?"

"Huh?" Donatello turned around, still too stunned with how things are progressing.

"What kind of tea do you want?" she asked again, patiently.

"Er… any is fine."

"Orange pekoe ok?"

"Sure."

"Sugar? Milk?"

"Just milk, thanks."

Moments later, a steaming mug of tea was handed to him and she sat down on the small couch, patting the space next to her, gesturing for him to sit down. Taking off the bag he had over his shoulders and unstrapping his bo staff, he did so. He sniffed cautiously at the tea and stared at her.

She laughed.

"It's not poisoned ya know."

"Urm… well… just wanted to be…"

Then he stopped.

"Why aren't you… screaming?"

Now it was her turn to stare at him.

"Why would I be screaming?" she asked, brows furrowed in confusion.

He gestured down at himself as if it explained everything. At that, she threw her head back and laughed. She was laughing so hard she had to put her mug down lest she spilled hot tea onto herself.

Donatello blinked. That… that had never happened before.

Still giggling slightly to herself, she wiped away the tears that had gathered in the corners of her eyes before she looked up at him with a grin, "I've been living in New York _and_ breaking into systems all over the world… and you think a talking green turtle is going to faze me? You're not the weirdest or scariest thing I've ever seen." At that, she picked up her mug and took a sip of her tea, amusement still dancing in her eyes.

Now… now Donatello was intrigued.

"What _is_ the weirdest thing you've ever seen?" he asked, curious. She tilted her head to one side in thought, "I'm not really sure any more. I broke into Area 51 for the shits and giggles a few times to see what's on their systems and I suppose once you've seen a giant alien mutant triceratops… anything is possible really, isn't it?"

Donatello's eye ridges raised in surprise. Giant alien mutant triceratops? A Triceraton? Area 51? Bishop?

"Did you come across any names?" he pressed. She shrugged, "I know that Agent Bishop heads the division and I know that most of his files were faked but that's about it really. Besides, I'm not technically supposed to be spying on other departments."

Other departments?

His expression must have betrayed his thoughts because she smiled a secretive kind of smile, "But I'm not here to talk about work. Why don't you tell me about yourself, Donnie?"

Alarm bells went off in his head. He was supposed to be conducting surveillance on her secretly. "What about you? I don't even know your name," he countered.

She reached out with one hand to shake his, "Jane. Jane McKinney." He reached out his own hand to shake hers, "Pleasure to meet you Jane. My name's Donatello."

"Ah," she said with a smile, "I was wondering what Donnie was short for. I like it. I'm assuming the rest of your brothers are also named after renaissance artists?"

"My… my…." His brain went slack. She knew about his brothers?!

As if able to read his mind, she smiled again, "Yes, I know about your brothers. It's my business to know about things. Makes it easier when I've gained access to your systems though. Plus I've had access to Bishop's as well. Not hard to put two and two together. I don't think there are many mutant turtles out based in New York."

So, he asked the question that had been on his mind since he arrived into this small one bedroom apartment.

"Why am I here? I mean… why did you want me to be here?" he asked, his hands already itching towards the Bo staff. His senses are on high alert now. This woman… no, this girl seemed to be posing as an immediate threat to his family. She knew too much. Far too much and she could be working with anybody. If she knew the location of their new lair… … Donatello would never forgive himself.

She sighed, "Will you relax? Finding your system was sort of serendipitous. But once I was in, it didn't take too long to fit the two things together. Besides, if I had wanted to, I would've already sold you out to Bishop already. But I didn't… plus I never liked that holier than thou attitude of his."

"You sound like you know him… personally."

She grimaced, "That makes it sound so dirty. And no, I'm aware of him and he's aware of him but we don't work together if that's what you're asking."

"Then why! Why am I here? Why did you want me to find you?" he asked exasperatedly.

She tilted her head to one side again before she reached out to close the gap between the two of them on the small couch. Her hand was on his muscled forearm and she leaned forward with a lazy smile. His breath hitched as he stared down at her uncomprehendingly. He had never been this close to another female before…. At least not ones who didn't run away screaming when they saw him… and ones who weren't April.

Then, their foreheads touched and he blinked. Jane McKinney still had that lazy smile on her face.

"Like I said… I was bored… and you sounded cute."

* * *

A/N: And there's the second one. :) The last act is lemon-y so you've been warned. Sorry this is taking a while but I was stuck for a bit when I was struck by inspiration of one for Raph. :D


End file.
